Insights

Washington – January 10, 2024: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2024: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 12th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in intellectual property, regulatory and other U.S. litigation, with special coverage of supply chain recovery and international litigation.

Washington – January 11, 2023: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2023: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 11th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in litigation that are playing out in specific jurisdictions around the globe. 

On December 29, 2022, the IRS released new guidance on whether vehicles qualify for tax credits under the clean vehicle provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (the “IRA”). At the same time, Treasury released a much-anticipated White Paper describing the Administration’s planned approach to assessing whether vehicles meet the critical mineral content and battery processing requirements of the IRA.

On April 20, the Biden Administration published final changes to the rules governing how federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions, returning to previous standards that required consideration of indirect and cumulative effects of a proposed action. Although the rule changes may appear minimal, encompassing modifications to two specific regulatory subsections and updates to two definitions, the changes could be significant in how agencies consider impacts on environmental justice communities or effects of climate change from proposed federal actions, including federal agency authorizations and approvals for energy, transportation, and other infrastructure projects. 

An administrative law judge ("ALJ") at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission held that a production-operator's responsibility for reporting a temporary employee's injury to MSHA on Form 7000-1 pursuant to 30 CFR § 50.20 was not discharged even though the injured miner's employer (the temp agency) had itself already reported the injury. The case is Dickenson-Russell Coal, VA 2009-430, decided January 16, 2013.

When it comes to environmental laws and regulations, the only question is when—not if—the courts will be asked to resolve contentious issues. Such is the case with a rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, under the Clean Air Act, to limit the greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuel-fired power plants.

The Air & Waste Management Association and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in partnership with The Horinko Group and Crowell & Moring present the First Annual A&WMA/EPA Colloquium — Waste Information Exchange. This one day conference was modeled after the highly successful Information Exchange — Air program, which will be celebrating its 40th year of operation in 2015. With high level government and industry panelists, this conference will foster collaboration and provide the latest information on waste regulations, remediation, and new technology. Topics to be covered include: EPA Priorities; Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Vision; Sustainable Materials Management; Hazardous Materials Transportation; and Cleanup Completion.

Earlier this summer, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that could have profound implications for companies that manufacture or import consumer or industrial products that are made using routine chemical products, such as coatings, paints, adhesives, and insulators, among others.  The bill, dubbed the Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013, could become a game-changer for a large swath of the manufacturing sector.  Among the bill’s key features are the following:

As 2023 rolls in, what changes can government contractors expect? What will be the focus of the US Government? How should contractors prepare?

Partner Amanda Berman will be presenting the session "Regulatory Roulette: The State of Play Under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Other Major Environmental Statutes" at 10:45 am on Wednesday, March 24th.

A presentation to EEI members on the issuance of the EPA's Historic Carbon Regulations for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants.